I'll start Christmas a little early--at the Baltimore Choral Arts Society's Christmas for Kids concert. I'm probably more fascinated by Pepito the clown than the girls are--she's so athletic and physically funny! My mom came, too--a great girls' morning out.
We had an early Christmas gathering at Mom and Dad's--there WERE men there, they just enjoyed watching some football. Aidan was nice enough to stand in for all of them. What a comfortable afternoon of hanging out, talking, and watching the kids do installment after installment of original modern dance routines! Thank you, Mom and Dad, for kicking off Christmas!
The next day we headed South--VA Beach! Grandma and Grandpa Blackman's breakfast nook is the favored location for the many domino games that take place.
Alan remembers drinking out of these tiny Santa mugs when he was a kid. Aren't they cute?!?
Grandma and Grandpa have a very pretty tree. Alan has pics of the whole Christmas gathering on his phone--Becky, Matt, and Casey joined in the fun, and the kids entertained all of us opening their gifts on Christmas morning. The girls also learned to play pool this year--thanks to Aunt Becky--and enjoyed adding that to the list of things to do at Grandma & Grandpa's house.
A trip to VA Beach is not complete without a trip to the, well, beach! It was COLD this year, so we didn't stay as long as we usually do, and no one dipped any bare toes in the ocean!
I love this picture of Evelyn. I also love it of Amelia, even though her photo bomb was not welcome by her sister. We managed to put together a gingerbread house--it stood for less than a minute. These are not where my skills lie, I'm afraid.
Our favorite hike in VA Beach--First Landing State Park. Every time we have Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Blackman, we do this hike--goes all the way back to the days of the double stroller!
Mt. Trashmore refurbished their enormous playground. I had a scare here--the girls were playing hide-and-seek, and Amelia hid so well that another father, his two middle-school-ish kids, Evelyn, Alan, and I took to searching for her. I was never so glad to see a pink sweatshirt behind a bush.
Va Beach was the place we stayed the longest on our epic journey, and we are so grateful for the company of family and the memories we made. Thank you for your hospitality, Mom and Dad Blackman!
The day after Christmas we drove for 13 1/2 hours. It wasn't SUPPOSED to be that long, but all the other Christmas travelers were on the road, too. Plus it was raining. We hit our first log-jam within 20 minutes of leaving Mom and Dad's...but sticking with it proved worth it. Look where we ended up:
Gainesville! We'd never visited cousin Patrick and Alyson, Henry, Ceci, and Malcolm, and they'd been our guests at least three times--so it was TIME. We joked that our kids took nothing from one another--they only GAVE to one another--spurring one another on to incredible heights of enthusiasm. Above is a picture of all the kids at a sinkhole-turned-state-park. Alyson and I thought all the steps would wear them out. HA! Not even close, even after having them take turns racing up and down the stairs while we timed them.
In spite of rainy weather, we managed to do some more hiking (even spotting an alligator!), and spent a great evening at Aunt Betty and Uncle Steve's new house (they've relocated to Gainesville, too), of which I have no pictures. I do, however, have some interesting video from that evening that I will post soon. My parents were down there celebrating their 49th anniversary and we were glad to cross paths with them for a night!
Evelyn enjoyed jumping into the Kee family for this photo. Wow we drank a lot of good coffee with these good peeps. We also spent hours listening to records--REAL records. Alyson's dad gave Patrick his old stereo turntable and the whole record collection, and they've been faithfully adding to it. We spent hours with Patrick, Ryan, and Alyson playing "Stump Alan." (He knows his tunes.)
Thank you, Florida Kees! We had such a good time with you all--thank you for letting us crash at your house, for making space in your laundry room for us, for planning such fun, and for giving us more great memories.
Then we had to drive off again, this time to St. Augustine. Our little motel had a heated pool!
Our motel by moonlight. It had a nativity on the front lawn, but I'm not sure you can see it in the picture.
The girls awoke WAY before the breakfast was due to be delivered (can you believe THAT?!?) so we decided to do something we'd never done as a family--watch the sunrise over the Atlantic! Let's just say our feet were freezing! It might be Florida, but the sand and water get COLD overnight.
Later, the girls sat on our king-size bed eating the tray of food brought by the hotel staff and watching PBS kids' shows. Amelia said, "I wish we had maids to do this for us EVERY day."
One more dip in the pool--it wasn't quite as warm first thing in the morning.
And then we were off to explore the fort in downtown St. Augustine--an adorable little town. The town was a little crowded, but we got to watch the shooting of a cannon off the roof.
Then it was off to Savannah for an overnight. We rented a little house with a swing and went out to a restaurant for dinner.
After dinner--some famous ice cream. It was doggone good.
Just ask this guy.
Next door to the house we rented, someone had painted this lovely command on the side of a shed. :)
And...we're off to NC! I am SO bummed I didn't take more pictures here. We had such a great New Year's Eve with Aunt Barbara, Uncle Diego, Kelby, his girlfriend, and a few of their friends. I think I might have a video of the girls running around with some sparklers, but no pics of people. Sigh.
Wait--look! Right there over Amelia's shoulder--Aunt Barbara! So I DO have a picture of her...thanks to Amelia and her love of selfies.
Thank you, Kennedy-Caballeros for your hospitality, great food, firepit, and good company! After a wonderful brunch with their neighbors, we hit the road for home, complete with new finger puppets. They, along with "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," kept us going and going.
There it is...the epic Christmas road trip. Wow...we have really great family!
No comments:
Post a Comment